The character who was to become Bugs Bunny first appeared in Porky’s Hare Hunt on April 30th, 1938. And though his official studio debut would be in A Wild Hare in July (27th) of 1940, any month is perfect to give Bugs a cheer, Bronx or otherwise.

As we’ve noted several times in Spin columns, the Capitol Children’s Series of records is among of the best of its kind. For consistency of quality and enduring appeal, the only other comparable line might be Hanna-Barbera’s Cartoon Series. Both offered only a small number of titles (compared to Disney, Golden or Peter Pan’s enormous catalogs) and both series bear the stamp of a singular vision: Charles Shows for HBR and Alan Livingston for Capitol.

Also like HBR, nearly every Capitol children’s record, with the exception of those based on a specific source, like Disney films, has a similar “interview” format. The lead character sets up the location or event (a party, a tour, etc.) and meets various characters who tell jokes of sing little ditties.

That’s the case with the three stories that made up the 1947 Bugs Bunny 78 RPM set, the six stories that adorned the Bugs Bunny and His Friends LP in 1960 and the three on 1977’s half-LP reissue in the late ’70s.

The three releases mixed and matched the stories, so for our purposes, they’re listed here one-by-one. All have embeds below so you can enjoy their wonders. You’ll note lots of similarities between the audio stories and various WB cartoons—which makes sense since all of them were penned by Warren Foster and Tedd Pierce.

The little song Daffy sings sounds like the faux “Merrily We Roll Along” that is heard on all the Capitol Looney Tunes records. Here, Daffy goes for a flight, has a few mishaps and then he lands. There’s not much more to it, really, but who cares? It’s Daffy.

[PLEASE NOTE: Actually, there is more to “Daffy Duck Flies South,” but Capitol did not include it on the album. On side two, he visits “Backward Land” before returning north. The inside front cover of the 78 album illustrates this. Thanks, David!]

This is a particular favorite because it’s an audio version of Warner’s funny travelogue cartoons, right down to the “well, I’ve been sick” line – also heard in such films as 1940‘s Wacky Wildlife, 1941’s Aviation Vacation and MGM’s 1947’s King Size Canary.

Here is one of exceptions to Capitol’s “interview” format, in which Daffy rents a room to Elmer for a low rate then pads the bill. This premise must go back to Vaudeville. Jack Benny played the same trick on Lucy Carter and family in an episode of Here’s Lucy. The song Daffy sings in this story is longer than most in the series.

It’s the oddest of these recordings because Hippety goes solo without Sylvester or Junior. There’s a generic cat and bulldog, and Blanc’s voices of the two probably should have been flipped, as neither really fits.

A variation of the Oscar-nominated Haiwatha’s Rabbit Hunt (1941), Bugs does his “help you find the rabbit” bit again, this time with June Foray’s Hiawatha, who is not as oafish as Blanc’s version of the character in the cartoon. This contains the classic gag in which Bugs sits in a stew pot enjoying the aroma of dinner until he realizes that he’s the main course.

SPIN BONUS: “Wanna Buy a Record?”
Our good pal Mark Evanier posted this on his newsfromme.com blog some time ago. Mel plays a record store owner (is his name Wallich?) and he tries to convince Billy May to buy a record. Blanc narrates most of it in first person, but a stentorian “school movie” narrator takes over when we get to the record factory and they cue the “hustle-bustle” music. Look for the prominent “Bozo Approved” logo on the record rack containing all those keen records.

Each of these recordings is a sparkling gem. Mel Blanc never fails to raise the level of even the most perfunctory of material. In most of them, he does multiple voices and bounces off other greats of voice acting, like June Foray and Arthur Q. Bryan. Almost all of these stories was released separately on 78 and/or 45 RPM discs, but not all of the single discs—like Snowbound Tweety, for example—made the transition to long-player. Of course, what would our souls soar with joy would be if every one of these stories made their way on to a CD or even iTunes. Just sayin’.

16 Comments

Bigg3469

July 12, 2016 6:44:26 am

I remembered in Don’t Ax Me, June Foray did the voice of Elmer Fudd’s wife and was hosting The Reverend for a Sunday duck dinner while Elmer along with Barnyard Dawg were persecuting Daffy as the Main Course not realizing that the Reverend was a Vegetarian, and she nailed down by sounding like the female version of Elmer! This was the only time that I remember that Elmer was married.

Oh man, Greg, this is the best post yet! I never realized that this many LOONEY TUNES related records were done. Yes, I’m only sorry that none of these were available when I was growing up, and it is a shame that these are not reissued on CD in a great set all their own. Are these *ALL* of the LOONEY TUNES platters? Were there more of these around, aside from the SYLVESTER AND TWEETIE tune that we’re now all too familiar with? The appearance of Arthur Q. Bryan, alone, is a treat! I’m hazy as to when Warner Brothers finally formed their own record label. Makes me wonder how these records would have been if done at Warners’ own studio with Carl W. Stalling doing the arranging and composing of various songs throughout these platters. Interesting to note that the DAFFY DUCK INN story/situation would later become “DIME TO RETIRE” with Porky and Daffy, and thanks for the extra Mel, guiding us through a record-producing plant!

Here is a quick checklist of all the Warner Bros. cartoon-related recordings made by Capitol Records in the 1940s and ’50s (that I’m aware of.). There are also a few Woody Woodpecker items in here, which were also written by Tedd Pierce and Warren Foster. The number of parts refers to the number of sides of a single record each story or song took up. “Two parts,” for example, means the story took up two sides (each side approximately 3 minutes long) of a 78 or 45 rpm record.

Wanna Buy A Record?‘s “Bachtrakovich’s Sinatra for Flugelhorn” @5:00 is interesting in that Capitol would go on to revive Frank Sinatra’s career in two years, while at the time of this film (1951) he would have been considered a has-been.

Some twenty-odd years ago, when the market for back catalog material was much healthier than it is now, efforts were made by some at Capitol to exploit their library of classic children’s records. One of the proposals that made it to the table was for a disc of the Warner stuff. Ultimately nothing happened with any of it because those who got the ultimate “yea” or “nay” vote couldn’t be convinced that anybody would buy vintage kiddie records.

That sucks. I would think a special 3-4 disc vinyl release of this material would be excellent right now.

Randy

July 12, 2016 6:39:40 pm

The little song Daffy sings sounds like the faux “Merrily We Roll Along” that is heard on all the Capitol Looney Tunes records. Here, Daffy goes for a flight, has a few mishaps and then he lands. There’s not much more to it, really, but who cares? It’s Daffy.

Actually, there is more to it. Whoever uploaded this only uploaded the first side of the record. There’s another three minutes that are missing here. IIRC, Daffy ends up in Backwards Land.

Thanks for all the info, Randy!
David Gerstein sent me a message about side two of Daffy Duck Flies South. It’s odd that the album would have only one side, but it has happened on other children’s records. All the accuracy is appreciated!

Nice work again, Greg. I have all these Capitols, now digitized, along with all of Blanc’s novelty song recordings….although “new” things will always turn up. (I believe the deep Indian voice in BUGS BUNNY MEETS HIAWATHA is Dave Barry, who also did a few WB cartoons.)

Hi Keith. Given your comprehensive collection of Blanc / Bugs songs, I wonder if you might be able to tell where I could locate the following one. Search as I might, I just can’t find it. A friend had it on a record many years ago and I remember the lyric exactly: “Oh there is a food I dearly love to eat / That’s not an apple, orange or a beet / When I haven’t got one I can’t bear it / I’m happy when I’m crunchin’ on a carrot” Any ideas? Best wishes, Glenn

greg duffell

July 18, 2016 10:14:45 pm

I speculate the great drawing of Bugs and the gang around the piano was drawn by Abe Levitow. Anyone know for sure?

Looking for the audio to a Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd 45 record form the 1960’s. Elmer Fudd was hunting Daffy Duck. Some of the words to the song are something like the following—Oh Daffy Duck, oh Daffy Duck, oh to think i tried to shoot you in the head. Oh I saw you in the sky… …and when you fell I thought that you were dead.
We had cousins visit us in the 1960’s and we had this record. They thought it was so funny, we player it over and over and over and over again. They talk about it to this day. I would love to hear this again and/or get a recording for them to hear. Can you help me? Or do you know who could help me find this?

in the 1960’s we had a 45 record of Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd. Some of the words were something like this:
Oh Daffy Duck, oh Daffy Duck, oh to think I tried to shoot you in the head.
Well I saw you in the sky…
And when you fell I thought that you were dead.
The story line was that Elmer Fudd saw him flying in the sky, he shot at Daffy, he thought Daffy was dead when he hit the ground, but somehow they were friends and Elmer felt bad about making the mistake of trying to kill this duck in the sky.
Is there anywhere I can get an audio recording of this? We played it TO DEATH when I was a kid. We thought it a was hilarious.

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ABOUT GREG EHRBAR

GREG EHRBAR is a freelance writer/producer for television, advertising, books, theme parks and stage. Greg has worked on content for such studios as Disney, Warner and Universal, with some of Hollywood’s biggest stars. His numerous books include Mouse Tracks: The Story of Walt Disney Records (with Tim Hollis). Visit gregehrbar.com for more.